(Untitled)

[apiphile]

Thought process

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

1. I know what you mean. If you moderate it, there's a level of usefulness in the political critiques, but if you get too much, and especially if you get too much of the simplified, knee-jerk internet-argument stuff, then you can end up second-guessing yourself for writing something that resembles something Problematic. It gets all "Oh no, I killed off a female character and a male character felt bad about it! Fridging!" "Oh no, I wrote a story where the central character is involved with another woman before she dies! Dead Lesbians!" "Oh no, I wrote an Asian guy involved in something shady and secret! That's totally not taking a cool, nasty, interesting spy character and having him be Asian because it works well on a practical level*, it's writing a stereotypical Sinister Asian

[apiphile]

Running into the perennial problem with writing anything, which is that I like to torment characters and deny them happy endings, and I like writing villain protagonists, so do I:

a. write these people as queer/characters of colour/trans/disabled and be accused of having a mad vendetta against people who fall into these categories or
b. not write them as any of the above and then be accused of whitewashing/straightwashing/ciswashing whatever?

Because attempting what I think people want:

c. do not write miserable shitfest stories, villain protags, or tortureporn

historically never works out for me due to intense boredom.

[wolfy_writing]

Yeah, that's a problem. People who read your work intelligently will see that you write character torment and unhappy endings and villain protagonists with depth and nuance and make them really feel like people, which is what the SJ stuff should be aiming for, but there's also the knee-jerk crowd. (I've seen some terrible reviews where, because a movie portrayed a lot of sexism and the female characters had an extremely small and limited ability to overcome it, the movie was therefore sexist.) The best solution I can think of is to write what you want, and remember that the corner of Tumblr that's likely to go to pieces over it isn't actually that important

[apiphile]

Yeah I keep thinking about ASAH, and how it would be "oh you killed the queer dude of colour"... which is actually the happiest ending for him at that point, vs the survival of the asexy lady of colour... god only knows why the idea that ALL PEOPLE ARE MORTAL is causing people so much strife.

[marika_kailaya]

re: 1: i think everyone i know is feeling this now. SOCIAL MEDIA IS MESSING WITH MY WRITING. and, in fact, i am far more concerned about those particular effects of anti-hate hate groups than i am about their actual agendas. in fact i would go so far as to say i don't give a single shit about the state of the world. i have stories i want to write and we're all going to die anyway.

5: yeah.

[apiphile]

Agreed, I just... I would like to get the writing done, and then die, and not have to deal with people any more. Especially THESE people.

[ruthi]

I'm sorry that people.

I'm glad I get to read your writing. I like your writing.

[apiphile]

After some consideration I've decided I am mostly just tired that people, and I need to find out where people are doing their non-yelling talk.

[coniferous_you]

1. It really bothers me that because of my continual and unavoidable absorption of political rather than technical critique of all media/writing ever, I find myself spending more time worrying about which components my books are likely to be reduced down to and criticised on (by people who will never read or buy them because they are not popular franchises and none of them are YAF or TV) than I do on the quality of the writing and the progression of the plot: in this fashion endless politically-oriented articles and tweets are damaging my writing.

And it's not just you. I read a very excellent book from an author I have been in contact with recently due to shared writing house, and it was like even she couldn't see that she'd written an awesome YA novel! People threw wrecking balls at her for writing a Jewish girl with Celiac disease as a main character and, despite being a Jewish girl with Celiac disease, Doing It Wrong.

I don't even want to know what they're saying about your writing. I just...don't want to know.

[apiphile]

Happily/sadly they're not saying anything, because they're not reading it. No one reads it. So by complete obscurity I am saved from direct attack.

[coniferous_you]

I like your writing, even though I shouldn't really. I mean, it's not an aberration when you consider my nationality, but if you could see my reader spreadsheet-you'd be shocked!.

But then, liking you loudly would certainly do my sister proud. She just wants to read books about Alice, basically.

The point is, BBB is on Amazon now so I will buy it.

[apiphile]

Thank you, and feel free, but you see my point? I'm getting bogged down/fenced in by the loudly-expressed opinions of people who are not reading my work and who will never read my work because it's not YAF or high fantasy, and it makes me wonder how the hell I get their influence OFF me in order to continue writing whatever genre it is that I do write.